A dramatic rise in flagrant cases of wildlife poaching has inspired a batch of new legislation that could truly put the hurt on criminal hunters in the West. Anti-poaching bills with stiffer fines and penalties are advancing in the New Mexico, Montana, Nevada and Idaho legislatures. But lawmakers in Wyoming and Colorado recently rejected efforts […]
States get semi-tough on poachers
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Forest supervisor shows Congress some dirty pictures
It was billed as a Washington, D.C.-style “barbecue,” but the roastee – Sawtooth National Forest Supervisor Bill Levere – was prepared for the heat. In early April, Idaho Rep. Helen Chenoweth ordered Levere, the manager of the central Idaho forest, to come to the nation’s capitol and defend his tough new penalties for ranchers who […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Southwest Forest Alliance takes a Hitt
New Mexico’s best known environmentalist was ousted from a Southwestern forest protection organization earlier this month following a dispute over the organization’s direction. Sam Hitt, a founding member of Southwest Forest Alliance, which represents 55 conservation groups in New Mexico and Arizona, was voted off the group’s board after he stormed out of a meeting […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Yellowstone mine swap is in a very deep pit
Another deadline passed for the New World Mine swap and the only thing traded was blame and doubt. The Crown Butte mining company turned down the government’s offer of $65 million in cash on April 12 in exchange for its proposed gold mine just outside Yellowstone National Park, saying it doubted that the government could […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Montana train accident derailed a small town
Alberton, Mont. – When sirens pierced the air before dawn last April 11, Lucinda Hodges awoke to find workers in Haz-Mat suits scrambling through the streets in a thick, white fog. Then it hit her. “I’ll never forget that feeling,” she says. “You breathe and there’s no air. You felt like you were suffocating.” In […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Dear Friends
Big Sky, big stress The March 31, 1997, issue of HCN described the litigious nature of Montana’s Big Sky Resort. We’ve gotten interesting responses to the story. Writer Ray Ring, sitting in Bozeman, says he sees signs that the article may have helped shift the tone of the dialogue. After a recent meeting, Gallatin County […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Scriptures
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Montana minister challenges a racist heresy
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Many argue that taxes are too high, or that our government is to a large extent corrupt. That is why, as I have listened to reactions to the Montana Freemen and other extremist groups, I have heard some people sympathizing. The Montana Freemen are […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Evangelicals are coming to the (earth’s) rescue
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Being an “evangelical environmentalist” is much like being an advocate of “sustainable economic development’ – both positions attract the label “oxymoronic.” I drive people up a wall because I am all for all four ideals: sustainable use of resources, economic growth, evangelical theology and […]
Posted inApril 28, 1997: Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
Evangelical Christians preach a green gospel
TROUT LAKE, Wash. – -The Bible is clear about it,” Peter Illyn is saying. “Over and over again, Scripture reveals that God commands us to be the stewards of creation. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s ours to use however we want to – it means that as Christians we are called to protect and preserve […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
A tough fighter
Dear HCN, It was with sadness that I read of our loss of Ruth Hutchins, one of the noblest of fighters for a sane Colorado water policy. My first contact with Ruth was a Sunday telephone call to me in my then capacity as a Colorado River Water Conservation District director. She talked at such […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
The information dirt road
Instead of booms and busts brought on by fluctuating demand for everything from gold to coal, rural areas believed that the information age would bring economic stability as educated information workers moved to small communities. No longer would small towns be turned into ghost towns when the ore gave out or commodity prices plunged. So […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
Here’s looking at tourism
Tourism is as hotly debated in the West as clearcutting. Some see it as salvation for overworked landscapes and faltering economies; others see it as a more vicious form of extraction than mining and logging. All those perspectives as well as a few from the center will be at the “Seeing and Being Seen: Tourism […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
Bringing back the small family farm
In their mid-40s and newly married, Bob and Bonnie Gregson dropped out and bought a 13-acre farm near Seattle, Wash. in 1988. When the couple left their corporate jobs and city lives, they dreamed of making a “reasonable, community-oriented, non-exploitive, earth-friendly, and aesthetically pleasing living.” They managed to succeed, after some trial and error, as […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
The burning barrel
The Burning Barrel is worth watching for its prairie shots and for the home movies of filmmaker Tim Schwab’s childhood that will make you nostalgic even though it’s not your childhood. An old oil drum that was used to burn his family’s garbage is the metaphor for wastefulness that narrator Schwab (he made the film […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
Tribal force
Tribal Force, a new comic book created by two 28-year-old artists from Arizona, begins in the year 2006 with the usual mega-battle: Native superheroes must stop the U.S. government from bombing the Indians and confiscating their resource-rich reservation land. But the story quickly becomes both more human and contemporary. Basho Yazza, one of the comic […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
Desert Conference
An annual rite of spring, the 19th Desert Conference at Oregon’s Malheur Field Station, April 24-27, attracts people from around the country for field trips, networking, a desert rat poetry festival and lots of informative talks. Topics will cover the making of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, cows and their intrusions into streams and the […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
Cherish and Renew: Restoring Western Ecosystems and Communities
To Cherish and Renew: Restoring Western Ecosystems and Communities is the theme of the second annual Wallace Stegner Center symposium, in Salt Lake City, April 17-19. Revitalizing damaged natural resources and local economies will be the focus of discussion sessions hosted by writer and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams, sustainable agriculture expert Wes Jackson, Ted Strong […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
Burning for a buck
It sounds like an easy way to make a few dollars: Gather up coils of old industrial-gauge wire, pile it in the desert, douse it with diesel and burn off the rubber and lead insulation. The raw copper left behind brings 80 cents to a dollar per pound. The trouble is, it’s illegal and a […]
Posted inApril 14, 1997: Beauty and the Beast
Cars kill trees
Scientists in California say the evidence is compelling: Air pollution from the fast-growing San Joaquin Valley is responsible for killing thousands of trees in the nearby Sierra Nevadas. The chief culprit is ozone, a pollutant created when exhaust from power plants or cars mixes with hydrocarbons in the presence of sunlight, say federal researchers and […]